Lesson Learned - In Pool Session

[johntt1986]

Well it was the last of the in pool sessions of my beginners course and our instructer set up an "underwater olympics" such as: trying to carry 5 pennies to our buddy at the otherside of the pool wearing those 3 fingered gloves, and other stuff to simulate what you could possibly encounter in a real life situation, but before we started we completed a buddy check. After competing in a number of events, the last event the instructer had set up was: our buddy had to go to the bottom of the deep end and wait there while she gave us instructions in the shallow end. The plan was to communicate to our buddy and ask him to switch our bc's, fins, mask, and snorkel. So I thought I could manage that, but on the way down my mouthpiece came off my reg and she just told me to use my octo instead. So i manage to get down there and try to signal to him to switch and he gets it...and i pass over my bc and i have his and alls well. So I took a minute to calm down cuz i was struggling to keep my bc down cuz there was a little air left in it. I realized that my hose for my reg was coming over the left side of my shoulders so i switched it over to the right and it started freeflowing which was all fine because i was already taught how to breath off a freeflowing reg...until my buddy took it and turned the reg off with a switch on it :mad1: and it tried breathing off it and i culdnt get any air...I culd on the surface when i calmed down...but i was seaching for my octo down there..and i culdnt find it and i started freakin...and i decide i was guna swim up to the surface...a few moments later my buddy surfaced and said i still culd breath off my main reg if i pressed the purge and said my octo was on the left side.


So My lesson that i learned out of all this chaos is to ALWAYS Know Where EVERY Piece of equipment is on your buddy.

 

[voop]

Equipment exchange sounds....a little extreme for a beginners course. Although I agree with the lesson learned being a good one. Dare I ask which agency you're training under?

 

[johntt1986]

Hmmm I dont think it was too extreme...just a little difficult but it has its applications in the real world.

Im being trained under a Naui Beginner Scuba Diver Course

 

[ScubaFreak]

All I know is that I don't feel equipment exchange is something that should be done on a beginners course. We dont practice that until a divemaster's course...

 

[SquattingRadishDM]

I agree that equipment exchanges at OW level seem a little extreme. I can understand that swapping mask and BCD gets you used to removing and replacing the BCD and Mask, but fin exchange?!? When are you going to R&R your fins?

If you weren't getting air from ur scuba unit you could have shared air with ur buddy from his octo, but Im sure you have relived this over and over again in ur mind. Your instructor wanted to practice problem solving and helping your buddy, fine. But this particular task seems to be overloading the student with tasks before they are comfortable underwater and with spontanious air sharing.

 

[johntt1986]

Yeh i can see where you guys are coming from...now i agree it was a little extreme and plus it was timed so that kindof got u going. Also after reliving it again in my mind i could've took the reg that i had originally that had no mouthpiece that he had after we exchange because it didnt really cross my mind about that. I guess thats another lesson learned...Calm down and dont panic, and u can breath off a reg with no mouthpiece lol.

But the other thing that kindof pisses me off even tho it was well intentioned, was the fact that he grabbed the reg that was freeflowing to turn it off while i was tryin to breath off it and search for my octo and calm down.

Any other divers have comments about this situation?

 

[Dapher]

When you are new just getting used to your gear and where everything is, is certainly difficult enough. I could not imagine having to take all of my gear off, switch it with my buddy, while still maintaining some kind of boyancy, and then using their gear of which I am totally unfamiliar with (Well except what I know from the buddy check). I am sure your instructor had good intentions, but I truly think you were task overloaded. It could have also ended up bad for your buddy when he encountered your reg without the mouthpiece. Real life.. if my equipment breaks I d/c the dive until I fix it. That is what 'save a dive" kits are for, AND my buddy and I don't swap gear underwater. I hope your instructor does not continue his/her extreme teaching during your OW dives.

Oh.. and give your buddy a break. He/she is new too and only acted as best they could.

 

[SquattingRadishDM]

plus it was timed so that kindof got u going.

woa that would get you going. If ur doing things in a rush your gonna make mistakes and from remembering my OW simply doing the skills in a hassle free environment was pressure enough.

For you buddies future reference, NEVER turn off someones air when they are breathing from it! If the reg is freeflowing switch to an alternate THEN turn off the free flowing reg.

So have you got certified m_boot_9 ?

 

[mccabejc]

... trying to carry 5 pennies to our buddy at the otherside of the pool wearing those 3 fingered gloves, and other stuff to simulate what you could possibly encounter in a real life situation...

I'm kinda new to diving, and I haven't yet encountered a situation where I needed to carry 5 pennies to my buddy underwater. What's the real life situation when that happens? Like if he wants you to pay him to share his air?

 

[Brian Gilpin]

Sounds like fun to me at least in the pool. The pennies are all about task loading IMO. Where are all the posters constantly whining about OW classes being too easy because they dont really put students to the test. The pool is the place to see if they can handle a little stress. Probably not appropriate for all students but maybe you guys were showing a little talent. This is a NAUI course after all so it can be a little tougher if the instructor decides the students can handle it.